Steve Pratt learns more about tassel twirling from one of the women who run Club Boudoir, which bills itself as the North-East’s leading burlesque cabaret show.

TEN years ago people would have looked at Jill Edmunds with a blank stare and wondered what on earth she was talking about if she’d have said the word ‘burlesque’.

These days this style of performance – a mix of satire and adult entertainment – is more mainstream and, while many still have the wrong idea about it, is much more acceptable and available.

Burlesque performers, usually female, offer colourful costumes, music and novelty acts. Modern-day stars following in the tradition of Gypsy Rose Lee include Dita Von Teese, Dirty Martini and Blaze Starr.

“It’s a good old-fashioned form of striptease but less about strip and more about tease,” explains Edmunds who, together with Sarah Miller, runs Club Boudoir, which bills itself as the North-East’s leading burlesque cabaret show.

As well as putting on shows in clubs, hen parties and private functions, they’ve started workshops where women of all ages can try to twirl a tassel.

“You can come in by yourself or as a hen party. It’s a good girlie day.

We begin with champagne on arrival, get to know each other and talk about burlesque,” explains Edmunds.

“By the end of the day most women have come up with their own burlesque act, working with props like big fans and chairs. Everything they’ve learnt is put together in their own dance, which they do as a group.

There’s no pressure on them. If they want, they can go down to panties and nipple tassels.

“By the end they’re twirling with the best of them – they’ve been given so much confidence. That’s a really good feeling.”

The pair are both professional dancers – Sarah, 33, from Low Fell, and Jill, 36, from Hebburn – who first met as teenagers 20 years ago while studying at the Tyne Theatre stage school in Newcastle.

They went their separate ways, with Edmunds working on cruise ships and Miller travelling to London as part of a girl band, but kept in touch over the years.

“Our work took us all over the world. When we came back, we met up again and were both fed up working for somebody else. We wanted to have a base back in Newcastle,” explains Edmunds.

In 2003, they launched Million Dollar Babies, a cabaret trio offering an entertainment package that could be adapted to any venue. That led to work in places as diverse as army barracks and casinos.

It was while managing the trio that they came across burlesque, which has enjoyed a boost of late.

Their mix of cabaret and burlesque is what makes Club Boudoir unique, they believe.

“Quite a lot of people do have the wrong idea about burlesque, especially if they haven’t been to see our show,” she says. “Our background is cabaret. We mix old time music hall and a Paris nightclub with singers and a compere. It’s very much a full production show. It’s our own take on burlesque.”

The Club Boudoir show usually features three burlesque girls (“including the obligatory French maid”) alongside vocal trio Million Dollar Babies and a compere.

They’ve even done burlesque-style wedding receptions. “People tend to be a shocked at that,” she says. “But it goes down a storm. These days everyone wants something a little bit different.

“People do get the wrong idea.

They think you have a male audience, but we have a predominantly female audience. At the workshops, you can bring your granny. You can take it as far as you want. You only have to remove a glove if that’s all you want to do.”

Edmunds saw her first burlesque show in Newcastle, although she’d been interested for some time through her cabaret work and old movies. “We went to see a show and thought we could do that, but better,”

she recalls. “At the time we were still doing cabaret in social clubs and holiday parks and abroad but wanted to move into the corporate market.”

Club Boudoir’s burlesque girls are recruited locally. Many have worked for the company in cabaret in the past. All are trained dancers and singers, mostly North-East based, and most have daytime jobs as call centre workers, waitresses and students.

Edmunds is always on the lookout for new girls, and often finds fresh talent at the regular Battle of the Burlesque, staged monthly at a Newcastle venue.

Club Boudoir works mainly in the North-East, although they have done a Valentine’s weekend in Majorca and a little bit of work down south.

“We’d love to travel a bit more,”

says Edmunds. “A lot of the girls who work for us have other jobs which makes things difficult with getting rehearsals together. I’d love to have enough work so they could work for us full-time.”

Male burlesque dancers are few and far between, although Club Boudoir is always on the lookout for them. One of their comperes, who’s a trained dancer, has shown an interest.

“Burlesque is always about gimmicks.

I don’t think men look particularly great when they strip anyway.

They need to have another talent,”

she says.

“The concepts for the burlesque girls are ours and most of the choreography is too. We do have input from the girls too, which is brilliant.

So much is about character, not just the body, so the more we work together, the better it is.”

When not working with Club Boudoir, Edmunds and Miller teach drama, dance and singing at stage schools across the region. But without the tassels.